Floyd takes no-hitter into 7th, Dunn homers as White Sox beat Red Sox

Victory ends 5-game losing streak

The White Sox ended April by breaking a five-game losing streak and knowing they would be only a game out of first place when Central Division-leading Indians come to town Tuesday.

On a throwback red-pinstriped-uniform Sunday, Gavin Floyd allowed the same number of runs as Jake Peavy did the day before, but at least he had some early run support in a 4-1 victory over the Red Sox.

Floyd flirted with a no-hitter before watching it all collapse in the seventh inning and turning it over to Addison Reed and Matt Thornton to finish.

"Absolutely," Floyd said when asked if he thought about the no-hitter. "It was natural but you have to put it behind you. Your object is to stay in there as late as you can and if it happens, it happens. You have to keep your focus and keep attacking."

"You don't even worry about that (no-hit) stuff until the seventh, eighth inning," said A.J. Pierzynski, who caught Philip Humber's perfect game eight days earlier. "Gavin deserves a ton of credit for the way he held down that lineup."

Floyd has taken four other no-hit games into the sixth inning and is now 7-0 lifetime against Boston.

He was perfect until a two-out walk in the fifth, and he didn't allow a hit until Dustin Pedroia singled with one out in the seventh. Pedroia scored the Red Sox's only run on a Cody Ross single before Floyd left.

"Gavin just had it," manager Robin Ventura said. "I don't know if you can sit there and kind of visualize a perfect game, no-hitter. I think people were probably doing that.

"But he's been that way. He's just been consistent, just locating and his off-speed pitches have been great."

Floyd had all the support he needed in the first inning. Leadoff man Alejandro De Aza singled, was sacrificed and scored on a single by Alex Rios.

Then Adam Dunn — batting cleanup with Paul Konerko out with a stiff neck — crushed a 419-foot homer, his fifth of the season and first at U.S. Cellular Field.

"I feel good, getting myself in good hitter's counts," Dunn said. "I just haven't been able to make them pay when I get in those good hitter's counts. It's a work in progress."

The Sox also scored a run in the eighth on a single by Dayan Viciedo, and Thornton finished off his first save since July 2, bringing up questions of whether Hector Santiago is still the closer.

"It's nothing against Hector; he'll still be in there in the ninth," Ventura said. "But you're looking at a guy with a body of work against those three (Boston hitters). I felt confident with Matt in there."

So the month is over for the Sox, who have been dominated by pitching and barely kept in games by light hitting.

"I think when our pitching holds up like it has been," Dunn said, "and we've maybe not been able to score a lot of runs, but we've had some timely hitting. Our bullpen's been solid. Overall it's a pretty good month."